


a case of you

by sanjariti



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Slow Burn, Sort Of, but then they meet so now what??, flirtatious banter but never actually meeting, meet cute, scoops boy and pretzel girl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 08:34:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20206816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanjariti/pseuds/sanjariti
Summary: When you catch Steve’s eye from across the mall, all he can think about is you. Will he garner up the courage to say hi, or will your flirtatious banter remain an unspoken thing?





	a case of you

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoy!!! there might be a second part so lmk what y'all think :')

“Hey,  _ dingus _ ! What are you doing?” Robin smacked the back of Steve’s head, gaining his attention for just a moment.

“What, Buckley? Can’t you see I’m busy here?” He turned back around and made a throat slash motion repeatedly before getting pushed by Robin.

“Wha-  _ Oh,  _ I see you, Harrington,” Robin snickered, laughing as Steve looked at her, his face flushed red with nerves.

“What’re you talking about?”

“You are _ so  _ obviously flirting with the pretzel place girl! Kinda mad and jealous I didn’t think of it first, but good for you, dingus. Maybe you’ll finally stop  _ sucking! _ ” Steve glared at Robin, throwing up his middle finger in response to hers as she walked away, finally giving Steve a chance to breathe.

As he leaned against the counter, he thought about what Robin had said.

Sure,  _ maybe  _ she had a point. But he didn’t think it was  _ really  _ flirting. Just some good back and forth banter with the cute pretzel girl.

Okay. Maybe it  _ was  _ flirting. 

But could he really help it? 

Ever since you started working at the joint; ever since he saw you in that white tennis skirt and green polo with the pretzel logo on the sleeves and your smile brighter than the stars, he couldn’t get you out of his head. But, you always managed to appear at the most inconvenient moments, never giving him a chance to think straight. 

Not that it was your fault you were so beautiful. And angelic. And  _ radiant. _

After about two weeks of complex daydreams where Steve imagined himself asking you out, and whisking you away to a magical paradise, he caught your gaze from across the tiled hall. He had smiled sheepishly, insanely embarrassed you had caught him staring, but when you smiled back and waved, his heart skipped a beat. 

He considered leaving the parlor for just a minute, a sweet, heavenly minute, so he could actually say hi to you for the first time, but Robin couldn’t have picked a better time to interrupt.

Yet, since then, the two of you began to have a sort of… conversation, if he could call it that.

It started when Steve caught your eye, and waved hello. You had waved back and smiled, pointing at the box sitting on top of the counter in front of you. 

Steve smiled and shrugged, raising his arms up to ask “Why?”, to which you responded with a simple finger gun to the head motion. He snorted, shaking his head before pretending to tie a noose around his head and pulling the imaginary rope up. Seeing you laugh at his stupid motions made him happy, and he wondered if he could keep it up.

A few days later, he sat behind the Scoops counter, watching you diligently dust some freshly baked pretzels with cinnamon sugar. One of your coworkers came up behind you and set down a new plastic tupperware full of sugar on the table, patting you on the shoulder as they moved on to the counter. 

You glanced up, and locked eyes with Steve from across the way. He smiled sheepishly, once again embarrassed you had caught him. You grabbed a pretzel and held it up, pointing at him and then at the pretzel. 

Steve quirked an eyebrow, his interest peaked. What were you trying to say?

You once again pointed at him and then the pretzel, and then beckoned for him to come your way. Steve froze, and shook his head. He silently cursed himself, and then looked at the clock. Mike had said he and the rest of the party were going to show up in exactly 15 minutes so Steve could let them in through the back, and he knew he’d never hear the end of it from the group if he wasn’t where he needed to be. 

He looked back at you and then pointed at the clock, doing his best to try and tell you that he couldn’t leave right then and there. You understood, and nodded, pointing to the back of the pretzel place. Grabbing a sleeve for the pretzel, you tucked it in and once again motioned to the back. 

_ For safekeeping.  _

Steve got what you were saying, and nodded, grinning as he silently thanked you for the gift.

The rest of his shift he was mentally preparing himself for the moment he could finally meet you, and thinking through what he would say. He was sitting in the back room when Robin came in, giving him a dramatic sigh.

“What is it, Buckley?” 

“Not to be the bearer of bad news dingus, but it looks like your pretzel lady is gone for the day,” Steve stood up from his chair, almost knocking over the small table in front of him.

“You’re joking! What?!” He pushed past her to the front counter, where he saw that you were no longer there; instead there were two other girls at the counter, with two guys behind them, working on more pretzels. 

Steve scratched the back of his head, completely bewildered by the fact you were gone. Robin came out and patted his shoulder, whispering “You suck, dingus,” before heading back. 

After locking up for the night, Steve was headed to the parking lot when someone behind said “Hey!”

He turned around, and saw one of the girls from earlier walking up to him. She handed him a pretzel with a sticky note that said “For Scoops Boy” on it. 

“She told me to give this to you, and to tell you she’s sorry she had to leave early.” The girl then walked away, leaving Steve utterly confused and happy. 

_ Scoops Boy and Pretzel Girl. _

Maybe it was meant to be.

You were gone the next few days, so Steve’s ice cream scooping days returned to their unfortunately drab, and uneventful regularity. It just wasn’t the same when you weren’t there to mess around with, even if it was from 50 feet away.

Even Robin could tell Steve was saddened by your disappearance, and she didn’t know if it was right to keep messing with him when he looked so sad.

Then one day, you came back. Steve had the early shift with Robin, but he had lost at rock paper scissors and had to come in an hour early to open the parlor. He had just finished raising the parlor’s security gate when he heard footsteps and keys jangling behind him. 

As he glanced back, he couldn’t believe it -  _ you were here.  _

In the flesh, a few feet away. You were wearing headphones, clearly paying more attention to the music playing through the headset than what was happening around you.

_ This is it,  _ Steve thought.  _ This is my chance. _

And without hesitation, he jumped down from the step stool and rushed over to the pretzel place, tossing his ridiculous sailor hat behind him, and ruffling up his messy locks. 

You had set your bag on the ground beside you as you struggled to open the security gate with your keys. The music was playing loudly in your ears, and you couldn’t hear a thing. 

Steve took a deep breath, repeated his words in his mind, and walked up to you, his hand reaching out to tap you on the shoulder.

At that same moment, you turned around, hoping you’d see someone who could save you from this early morning nightmare. With your hand raised, you stepped back and turned swiftly, your hand meeting Steve’s as you both froze in mid-motion, hands touching and eyes locked on one another.

The world seemed to have stopped as the two of you gazed at one another, completely starstruck and lost in one another. 

A soft silence fell between you two, your eyes still focused on each other as you stood there, motionless.

Steve knew it was now or never, and he wasn’t about to ruin his chance.

“Hi.”

**Author's Note:**

> feedback is always appreciated :')


End file.
